TORONTO — An experiment mating H5N1 avian flu viruses and a strain of human flu in a laboratory produced a surprising number of hybrid viruses that were biologically fit, a new study reveals.

And while none of the offspring viruses was as virulent as the original H5N1, about one in five were lethal to mice at low doses, showing they retained at least a portion of the power of their dangerous parent.

The work suggests that under the right circumstances - and no one is clear what all of those are - the two types of flu viruses could swap genes in a way that might allow the H5N1 virus to acquire the capacity to trigger a pandemic. That process is called reassortment.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Life!) - San Francisco is famous for its steep hills and fresh food, so it may come as no surprise that it wins the honor as the fittest city in the United States, according to a new report.

San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area narrowly edged out Seattle in the first American Fitness Index released this week by the American College of Sports Medicine and the WellPoint Foundation.

Without sufficient magnesium, the body accumulates toxins and acid residues, degenerates rapidly, and ages prematurely. It goes against a gale wind of medical science to ignore magnesium chloride used transdermally in the treatment of any chronic or acute disorder, especially cancer.

GARDASIL is the world's first vaccine against cervical cancer. Its FDA approval triggered efforts across the nation to mandate shots for school girls, but did doctors jump on the bandwagon too soon?

However, a government watchdog group says the problems with GARDASIL are real and adding up. "Paralysis, convulsions, seizures in young girls; very, very scary and very unfortunate," explained Irene Garcia, of Judicial Watch.

A federal vaccine reporting system has received more than 5,000 reports of adverse events, a small percent of them serious, following GARDASIL vaccination. However, a report does not mean the vaccine caused the problem.

Rates of breast cancer and birth defects are on the rise in China, largely due to the increasing adoption of a Western diet and a boom in coal mining, respectively, according to state-run media reports.

At the same time, the number of obese Chinese has reached 60 million. While this is less than five percent of the population (compared with 30 percent in the United States), it is equivalent to the entire population of France.

But here is the real kicker: while it would be repulsive and incredibly inhumane to deport an uninsured/under-insured person with a serious medical condition because of their undocumented status, despite the lack of adequate facilities for their care in their nations of citizenship, it isn’t even the case here. Sonia del Cid Iscoa has a current visa and in the U.S. legally.

The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.